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The figure is far lower than the British Crime Survey's figures because only less than half of all offences are reported to the police.

One third of the knife offences, which includes attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, wounding and mugging at knife point - was in London.

However, the menace of knife crime is not confined to cities, with rural forces dealing with hundreds of forces.

The highest number of offences - 7,409 - was in London while the second highest figure was in the West Midlands with 2,303 incidents. Third was Greater Manchester with 2,294.

But many rural forces also recorded hundreds of knife crimes. Devon and Cornwall recorded 288 offences, Northumbria recorded 351 and Thames Valley 329.

Other mainly rural forces with significant numbers of knife crimes included Sussex with 274, Hampshire with 388, Kent with 327, Bedfordshire with 316, Cheshire with 224 and North Wales with 108.

This is the first year figures for knife crime have been recorded separately and the release of the statistics follows a spate of high-profile stabbings, including that of the teenager Ben Kinsella. The 16-year-old was stabbed to death outside a London pub last month.

Gordon Brown said he wanted to make carrying a blade as unacceptable as having a gun on the streets.

He said: "It is because we have identified the problem of knife crime, and particularly in some hotspots of the country, that we have stepped up our action dramatically.

"More stop and search, more visible policing, more metal detectors trying to spot where knives exist, and stepping up our action with tougher sentences and a determination to say to people: if you are caught with a knife, you will be prosecuted, if you have a knife you will be punished, and we will do everything in our power to prevent people having knives."

Overall crimes committed in England and Wales were down by 10 per cent, although there were increases in shootings and murders.

But the police figures also showed a two per cent increase in firearms offences to 9,803 while recorded drug offences were up rose 18 per cent, mainly due to an increase in people dealt with for cannabis possession.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph last week, the police statistics also showed an overall increase in murders, up from 759 in 2006/07 to 784 last year.

Overall there were one million fewer crimes, while the risk of being a victim of crime had fallen from 24 to 22 per cent, the lowest level ever recorded since the British Crime Survey began in 1981

Burglaries and muggings were stable, although the Home Office's chief scientific officer Professor Paul Wiles said these figures were likely to rise over the next few years.

Prof Wiles said that it was likely that the impact of the credit crunch and the economic slowdown would put "upward pressure" on property crime.

Part of the reason for a continuing fall in property crime was mobile phones and Ipods were "cheap relative to current real wages".

He said: "Depending on the extent of the downturn, that will put upward pressure on property crime and it is a matter of at which point it triggers that upward pressure.

"If you look at things historically, people have stolen certain types of things. They do not steal washing machines. Can you imagine dragging one down the street?"

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was "extremely pleased" with the figures, although more needed to be done to cut crimes involving knives and guns.

The Tories said the knife crime figures were a "a shocking indictment of Labour's failure to tackle crime and its causes".

Meanwhile, a proposal to padlock knife criminals to their dead victims was rejected by a Government minister yesterday - but he said all options should be considered.

Home Office minister Lord West of Spithead said: "I think that's probably more than we need to do, but I do think we need to look at all possibilities."